By Cheyne Ordonio | Editor-in-Chief
Photo by Cheyne Ordonio
Members of the Massachusetts Community College Council (MCCC) had a rally at the Statehouse in Boston last Feb 22 in response to Wisconsin’s ongoing battle between State budget needs and teachers unions fighting to keep their collective bargaining rights. Ellen Pratt, Chapter President of MWCC’s Faculty & Professional Association, a chapter of the MCCC, said the purpose of the rally was “to bring attention to the threat to collective bargaining rights for public employees.”
Pratt said students at MWCC should care what happens in Wisconsin because “It’s through our collective bargaining agreement that class size is determined. And also workload; a faculty teacher has to teach the equivalent of five courses a semester.” Part time and full time teachers have different contracts. Before 2010, full time teachers could have class sizes up to 40 students, or 200 per semester.
Part time teachers could have classes of 32 students. Through collective bargaining, class sizes are now no larger than 32 students for full and part time teachers and no more than 22 for developmental, writing and foreign language courses.
With no more than 160 students per semester, teachers can give greater focus to their students and are more readily available when students need them. While the idea is to give students a higher quality of education by not overloading teachers, critics of unions don’t see it that way, and Pratt says one of her greatest difficulties is the public perception that people in public unions have “cushy jobs.”
“It’s not fun,” Pratt said of her position as chapter President. She later added that unions are important because they come from the need to fight against child labor, low wages, and poor working conditions. “It’s about human rights,” said Pratt.
Generally, a three year contract is negotiated between MCCC and the Department of Higher Education, which has no fiscal power. Once the contract is negotiated, it goes to the State Legislature and Governors’ office for funding as part of the yearly budget. As part of a compromise to help the State during our current recession, MCCC agreed to an amendment which delays a 1.5% salary pool increase from July 2010 until June 30, 2011.
The point of collective bargaining is to come to an agreement on the best ways to balance the needs of lawmakers, school management, teachers, and the best interests of students. “There’s a need for experts in the field to be part of policy making,” said Pratt. Otherwise, classes could become overpopulated, teachers overloaded, and students would wind up paying for a lower quality of education.
Pratt’s involvement in teachers unions began in 1993 when she worked at Northern Essex Community College as a librarian. Gail Stuart, another librarian got Pratt interested, though Pratt described her participation as minimal.
When Pratt came to MWCC in 2005, where she now works as the Distance Education and Outreach Librarian, she took a more active role. After being mentored for a year by Elena Natalizia, then President of the Faculty & Professional Association, Pratt ran for the position of President and took over in 2007.
Pratt has Bachelors in Biology from Fitchburg State University and a Masters in Library Science from the University of Alabama.
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